trans. Jason Colavito
2014
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NOTE 
Manuscript 512
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The document known as Manuscript 512 is housed in the Brazilian National Library in Rio de Janeiro. It tells of a group of explorers who chanced upon a ruined stone city in the east of Brazil in 1753. The text is worm-eaten and missing many sections of the original 1754 Portuguese text. Nevertheless, the material contained in this document has inspired generations of fringe thinkers. Lt. Col. Percy Fawcett vanished in 1925 chasing after what he thought might be the capital of the civilization represented by the lost city, which he thought was an outpost that had been built by Theosophy's Venusian gods. Others, like Barry Fell, proclaimed that the strange symbols seen in the city were the work of Ptolemaic Egyptians. The text itself, however, seems to be a work of historical fiction. The city's monuments recall those of Rome: the three-arched Arch of Constantine, the pointing statue of the Augustus of Prima Porta. Nevertheless, the document continues to inspire seekers after treasure to this day.
In 1865, Mrs. Richard Burton made the first English translation in a book of her husband's. In the 1940s Harold Wilkins made the second English translation of Manuscript 512, though he thought it the first. My translation follows the scanned Portuguese original made available by the Brazilian National Library. Ellipses represent sections missing due to worm damage. In most cases, though, I improve upon Wilkins, who was not familiar with eighteenth century dialect terms, such as the unusual word for "chimney," which he misleadingly translates as "smokes." Mrs. Burton got that one correct! |
Historical Relation of a Hidden and Large City, Very Old and Without Inhabitants, Which Was Discovered in the Year 1753
In America ... we inland .... contiguous to ...................... Field Commander ............ his retinue, for ten years having traveled the wilderness to see if we could find the vaunted silver mines of the great discoverer Moribeca (who through the wickedness of a Governor received not his letters patent, because he wanted for himself these mines and this glory), and Moribeca was imprisoned in Bahia until he died, in order to wrest from him details of the discovery. This account came to Rio de Janeiro in the beginning of the year 1754. ........
After some long and tiresome wanderings, incited by greed for gold, and nearly lost for many years in this vast wilderness, we discovered a ridge of mountains so high, that seemed to scrape the ethereal region and to serve as the throne of the winds beneath the stars; from afar their luminance was awe-inspiring, especially when the sunlight gave them the impression of fire to the crystals forming their rocks. So beautiful was this that nobody could take their eyes from the reflections: the rain came before we approached to record this wonder in crystal. We saw above… We saw from the bare rocks waters rush down from great height, foaming white, looking like snow, and seemingly struck aflame from lightning-like bolts of sunlight. Delighted by the beautiful view ……. shone and sparkled …… of the waters and tranquility …… of the day and the weather, we decided to investigate this admirable prodigy of nature, laid out before us at the foot of the hills, without hindrance, of forests and hills that would make transit difficult; however, in circling the mountains, we found neither opening nor passage into these Brazilian Alps or Pyrenees, an inexplicable sadness resulting for us from this disappointment.
We grew tired and made plans to retrace our steps the next day, when one of our Negroes, gathering firewood, saw a white stag, which through this happening, as it fled, he discovered a road between the two mountain ranges, which seemed to have been cut by artifice, and not by Nature. We were overjoyed with this discovery, and we began to climb, but found a large boulder that had fallen and broken into pieces where we judged a paved walk had been violently overthrown in some long ago time. We spend a good three hours on the ascent, admiring the sparkling multicolored crystals that fascinated us, and atop the mountain we halted.
There, extending before our view, we saw in an open field still greater sights for our amazement. We saw at around the distance of a league, as we adjudged, a great city, persuading us by its extent that it was a city of the Court of Brazil: we soon descended cautiously into the valley .......... would be in a similar case, sent to explore ....... by quality, and ......... had they noticed ........... chimneys [dialect: fuminés], this being , one of the obvious signs of the city.
We waited two days, wondering whether to send forth scouts to the end that we so greatly wanted, and all alone we waited in doubt and confusion for daybreak, speculating whether the city was inhabited. But it was soon clear that there were no inhabitants. An Indian of our party resolved after two days to enter the city at any risk, as a precaution for us, but in returning, he amazed us when he said he did not meet or discover the traces of any person: This so confounded us that we could not believe that we saw dwellings, and thus we arranged for all scouts to follow in the footsteps of the Indian.
When they had seen the truth of this for themselves, we set out for the city at dawn with weapons at the ready.
With no one to meet us or bar our way, and we found no other way than the one road into the great city, whose entrance has three arches of great height, the middle being greatest, and the two side arches smaller; atop the great and main arch we made out letters, which we could not copy because of their great height above the ground.
Behind was a street of the width of the three arches, with large houses here and there, with façades of carved stone, and blackened with age. Alone ............... inscriptions, all open to the day ................ decreases of .......... noting that the regularity and symmetry with which they are made, seeming to have only one owner, being in reality many, and some with their terraces open, and without tile, because some had burnt floors and other slab floors.
With terror and dread we entered some of the houses and found no traces of objects or furniture by which we could guess something of the quality of the natives; the houses are all dark inside, and not even the dimmest light could enter, so when the vaulting interiors threw back echoes, we were terrified at our own voices. We pushed on through the street and came to a well-proportioned square, and in the middle was a black stone column of extraordinary greatness, and atop it the statue of an ordinary man [i.e.: not a god] with one hand on his left hip, and the right arm extended, pointing the index finger to the North Pole. In each corner of the square stood an obelisk like those of the Romans, though they are much damaged, as if by lightning.
On the right side of this square stood a superb building, likely the principal house of some lord of the land; the entrance hall is large, but still scared many of us did not enter, …. and retreat ......... to form some ................... we encountered ................... mass of extraordinary ....................... it was hard for him to lift it ........................
The bats were so many and they flew all about the faces of our people, and made such a sound that we were astonished. Above the main portico on the street is a raised figure carved from the same stone and naked from the waist up, crowned with laurel: representing a person of few years, beardless, with girdle about him, and an undergarment open at his waist; under the shield of this figure were some characters partially effaced by time, of which however we made out the following:
After some long and tiresome wanderings, incited by greed for gold, and nearly lost for many years in this vast wilderness, we discovered a ridge of mountains so high, that seemed to scrape the ethereal region and to serve as the throne of the winds beneath the stars; from afar their luminance was awe-inspiring, especially when the sunlight gave them the impression of fire to the crystals forming their rocks. So beautiful was this that nobody could take their eyes from the reflections: the rain came before we approached to record this wonder in crystal. We saw above… We saw from the bare rocks waters rush down from great height, foaming white, looking like snow, and seemingly struck aflame from lightning-like bolts of sunlight. Delighted by the beautiful view ……. shone and sparkled …… of the waters and tranquility …… of the day and the weather, we decided to investigate this admirable prodigy of nature, laid out before us at the foot of the hills, without hindrance, of forests and hills that would make transit difficult; however, in circling the mountains, we found neither opening nor passage into these Brazilian Alps or Pyrenees, an inexplicable sadness resulting for us from this disappointment.
We grew tired and made plans to retrace our steps the next day, when one of our Negroes, gathering firewood, saw a white stag, which through this happening, as it fled, he discovered a road between the two mountain ranges, which seemed to have been cut by artifice, and not by Nature. We were overjoyed with this discovery, and we began to climb, but found a large boulder that had fallen and broken into pieces where we judged a paved walk had been violently overthrown in some long ago time. We spend a good three hours on the ascent, admiring the sparkling multicolored crystals that fascinated us, and atop the mountain we halted.
There, extending before our view, we saw in an open field still greater sights for our amazement. We saw at around the distance of a league, as we adjudged, a great city, persuading us by its extent that it was a city of the Court of Brazil: we soon descended cautiously into the valley .......... would be in a similar case, sent to explore ....... by quality, and ......... had they noticed ........... chimneys [dialect: fuminés], this being , one of the obvious signs of the city.
We waited two days, wondering whether to send forth scouts to the end that we so greatly wanted, and all alone we waited in doubt and confusion for daybreak, speculating whether the city was inhabited. But it was soon clear that there were no inhabitants. An Indian of our party resolved after two days to enter the city at any risk, as a precaution for us, but in returning, he amazed us when he said he did not meet or discover the traces of any person: This so confounded us that we could not believe that we saw dwellings, and thus we arranged for all scouts to follow in the footsteps of the Indian.
When they had seen the truth of this for themselves, we set out for the city at dawn with weapons at the ready.
With no one to meet us or bar our way, and we found no other way than the one road into the great city, whose entrance has three arches of great height, the middle being greatest, and the two side arches smaller; atop the great and main arch we made out letters, which we could not copy because of their great height above the ground.
Behind was a street of the width of the three arches, with large houses here and there, with façades of carved stone, and blackened with age. Alone ............... inscriptions, all open to the day ................ decreases of .......... noting that the regularity and symmetry with which they are made, seeming to have only one owner, being in reality many, and some with their terraces open, and without tile, because some had burnt floors and other slab floors.
With terror and dread we entered some of the houses and found no traces of objects or furniture by which we could guess something of the quality of the natives; the houses are all dark inside, and not even the dimmest light could enter, so when the vaulting interiors threw back echoes, we were terrified at our own voices. We pushed on through the street and came to a well-proportioned square, and in the middle was a black stone column of extraordinary greatness, and atop it the statue of an ordinary man [i.e.: not a god] with one hand on his left hip, and the right arm extended, pointing the index finger to the North Pole. In each corner of the square stood an obelisk like those of the Romans, though they are much damaged, as if by lightning.
On the right side of this square stood a superb building, likely the principal house of some lord of the land; the entrance hall is large, but still scared many of us did not enter, …. and retreat ......... to form some ................... we encountered ................... mass of extraordinary ....................... it was hard for him to lift it ........................
The bats were so many and they flew all about the faces of our people, and made such a sound that we were astonished. Above the main portico on the street is a raised figure carved from the same stone and naked from the waist up, crowned with laurel: representing a person of few years, beardless, with girdle about him, and an undergarment open at his waist; under the shield of this figure were some characters partially effaced by time, of which however we made out the following:
On the left part of said square there is another building, totally ruined, and the traces remaining well show it was a temple, because it still retains part of its magnificent façade, and some naves made entirely of stone. It occupies a great bit of ground, and its ruined walls are lined with works of perfection, with some figures and portraits inlaid in the stone with crosses of various shapes, arches [literally: corvos, probably mistake for curvos], and other figures that require far too long to describe here.
Beyond this building much of the city is ruined and buried beneath large portions of earth, and hideous openings in the ground, and within this expanse there can be seen no grass, herb, tree, or plant produced by nature, but heaps of stone, some raw and others finished, so we understood ................... because even among ................ the corpses ........ that .................... and part of this unfortunate ............. and overthrown, perhaps by some earthquake.
In front of this plaza there runs swiftly a mighty and wide river, with spacious banks, which are very nice to look at. It is eleven to twelve fathoms wide without considering the windings, clean along its edges of trees and trunks, which often are brought down in floods. We plumbed its depths, and we found in the deepest parts it was fifteen to sixteen fathoms deep. The land beyond is completely full of very lush fields, and with such a variety of flowers, that Nature, seemingly paying more attention in these parts, sought to produce the most beautiful fields for Flora. We also admired with amazement some lakes all full of rice plants, which we utilized, and the innumerable flocks of geese that bred in these fields of fertility, but it would have been difficult to measure their depth by hand without a sounding rod.
Downstream we walked three days, and we ran into a cataract of such great noise and foaming waters, that we thought the most discussed mouths of the Nile could hardly match it or offer greater resistance to our progress. After this the river spreads itself so wide it seems like the great Ocean: It is all full of peninsulas, covered in green grass, with groves of trees that make ........ Here we ................. for lack of it, we ............. the variety of hunting ......... many animals raised without hunters to chase and hunt them.
On the east of this cataract we found several underground hollows and hideous pits, and we tried their depths with many ropes; but for all our attempts, we were unable to plumb their depths. We also found some broken stones, and on the surface of the earth, thrown down, silver, as if taken from the mines, and abandoned at the time. Among these caves we saw some covered with large slabs, and the following figures carved on the same stone, which suggest a great mystery. They are:
Beyond this building much of the city is ruined and buried beneath large portions of earth, and hideous openings in the ground, and within this expanse there can be seen no grass, herb, tree, or plant produced by nature, but heaps of stone, some raw and others finished, so we understood ................... because even among ................ the corpses ........ that .................... and part of this unfortunate ............. and overthrown, perhaps by some earthquake.
In front of this plaza there runs swiftly a mighty and wide river, with spacious banks, which are very nice to look at. It is eleven to twelve fathoms wide without considering the windings, clean along its edges of trees and trunks, which often are brought down in floods. We plumbed its depths, and we found in the deepest parts it was fifteen to sixteen fathoms deep. The land beyond is completely full of very lush fields, and with such a variety of flowers, that Nature, seemingly paying more attention in these parts, sought to produce the most beautiful fields for Flora. We also admired with amazement some lakes all full of rice plants, which we utilized, and the innumerable flocks of geese that bred in these fields of fertility, but it would have been difficult to measure their depth by hand without a sounding rod.
Downstream we walked three days, and we ran into a cataract of such great noise and foaming waters, that we thought the most discussed mouths of the Nile could hardly match it or offer greater resistance to our progress. After this the river spreads itself so wide it seems like the great Ocean: It is all full of peninsulas, covered in green grass, with groves of trees that make ........ Here we ................. for lack of it, we ............. the variety of hunting ......... many animals raised without hunters to chase and hunt them.
On the east of this cataract we found several underground hollows and hideous pits, and we tried their depths with many ropes; but for all our attempts, we were unable to plumb their depths. We also found some broken stones, and on the surface of the earth, thrown down, silver, as if taken from the mines, and abandoned at the time. Among these caves we saw some covered with large slabs, and the following figures carved on the same stone, which suggest a great mystery. They are:
Above the portico of the temple we saw besides these forms as follows:
Away from the city about a cannon shot is a building like a country house, two hundred and fifty feet across. One enters by a large portico, within which rises a stone stairway of various colors, leading up to a great chamber, and after this are fifteen small rooms all with doors to said great chamber, and each having for itself a waterspout .............. which water gathers ........... in the outside courtyard ............ colonnades on .................. squared and fashioned by hand, hung over with the following characters:
After leaving these wonders we walked down to the banks of the river to see about discovering gold and without any work we found a good trail on the surface of the earth, promising us a great riches, as well of gold as of silver: We marveled that the inhabitants had abandoned this city; for all our diligence found no trace we had met no person in these wilds that could tell us of this deplorable wonder of an abandoned city whose ruins, statues, and grandeur well showed how populous, wealthy, and its flourishing in centuries past; but now it is inhabited by swallows, bats, rats, and foxes that, feeding on the endless flocks of chickens and geese, are made larger than a pointer dog. The rats have such short tails that they leap like grasshopper or fleas, and do not walk or run as in other places.
At this place our party separated, and one company, joined by some others, after nine days of long marching spotted at the edge of a large cove into which the river spreads a canoe with two white people with long, flowing black hair, dressed like Europeans ……… giving a shot to signal as to sever ............... to flee. They had………. hairy and wild ............. their hair is braided, and they wear clothing.
One of our fellows named João Antonio found in the ruins of a house a piece of gold money, of spherical form, greater than our coin of six thousand four hundred reis: On one side was the picture or figure of a young man on his knees, and on the other a bow, crown and arrow, many of such coins we doubted not to find in the abandoned city, which had been overthrown by some earthquake which gave no time, so quick was its arrival, to remove precious objects; but one needs very strong arms to loosen the debris that piled up over so many years, as we saw.
These news I send to you from the interior of Bahia, and from the rivers Pará-oaçu and Uná, guaranteeing that we will not give any information to any other person at all, for we conclude that the villages would empty out, but I give to you the mine we discovered, remembering how much I owe you.
Suppose that from our party one of our company went forth with a different pretext….. he may, doing great harm to your Honor, drop his poverty and use these great things for himself, taking pains to pay off the Indian, and undermine his purpose and thus lead your Honor to these treasures……… They will find in the entrances ........... slabs ………..
At this place our party separated, and one company, joined by some others, after nine days of long marching spotted at the edge of a large cove into which the river spreads a canoe with two white people with long, flowing black hair, dressed like Europeans ……… giving a shot to signal as to sever ............... to flee. They had………. hairy and wild ............. their hair is braided, and they wear clothing.
One of our fellows named João Antonio found in the ruins of a house a piece of gold money, of spherical form, greater than our coin of six thousand four hundred reis: On one side was the picture or figure of a young man on his knees, and on the other a bow, crown and arrow, many of such coins we doubted not to find in the abandoned city, which had been overthrown by some earthquake which gave no time, so quick was its arrival, to remove precious objects; but one needs very strong arms to loosen the debris that piled up over so many years, as we saw.
These news I send to you from the interior of Bahia, and from the rivers Pará-oaçu and Uná, guaranteeing that we will not give any information to any other person at all, for we conclude that the villages would empty out, but I give to you the mine we discovered, remembering how much I owe you.
Suppose that from our party one of our company went forth with a different pretext….. he may, doing great harm to your Honor, drop his poverty and use these great things for himself, taking pains to pay off the Indian, and undermine his purpose and thus lead your Honor to these treasures……… They will find in the entrances ........... slabs ………..
